A Mr. Q Uneventful Dementia Day
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Today (actually yesterday – it is after midnight) started off with an almost standard (for Mr. Q) problem of putting on his clothes. He put his pants on inside out. I tried to get him to understand the problem, but he didn’t seem to grasp it. The pockets were sticking out and he kept trying to get them right. I couldn’t made him turn them inside out so they would be right no matter what I said , or even when I pointed to the problem.
After that he really behaved almost like there he had no problems. I had to leave for three hours at noon and when I got back home he had still behaved almost perfectly. It is so nice to see him like that. That was like the Mr. Q that I knew before he had his Alzheimer or dementia symptoms.
I stayed home the rest of the day while Laureta (my wife) went to straighten out the mess at our other house that has been the subject of much disgust and anger over the situation there. Mr. Q had the perfect behavior from 3:00 until he went to bed at 8:45 pm. There was only a minor glitch at bedtime when he had a problem knowing what to do in the bathroom. Then he did not want to go to bed. He didn’t seem to know what to do when I told him to get in bed. Tem minutes of talk and coaching finally convinced him not to fight me. I had to lay him in bed. He didn’t seem to know what to do. He seemed lost.
It was a rather cool day and the evening was even cooler. Mr. Q had been wearing some lightweight pants and wanted to take them off. I wanted him to keep them on since it was going to be cool tonite and since it’s about summer we don’t have the heater on anymore. I think his pants were really pajamas, but to Mr. Q he doesn’t know the difference. We could never get him to know the difference between pajamas and pants. Rather than have an argument and ultimately an altercation with him about not wearing pajamas instead of pants he got his own way in that matter.
This evening I was sitting trying to read when Mr. Q kept asking me what time was it. I pointed to the clock and he went there and came back and told me the time. I told him bedtime was 8:30 and he had three more hours to go until bedtime. Again a couple of minutes later he again asked me the same question – was it time to go to bed. I said no – wait until 8:30. Well to make a long story short he must have asked me at least twenty times that same question about the time and when was he going to bed. I pointed out to him he was asking me the same thing every few minutes. I asked if he forgot he asked me. He said yes. That was extremely rare that he admitted he forgot anything.
I notice that most days, if I am not on the computer around 4:30 – 6:30pm he starts to ask about the time and if it’s time to go to bed. It seems that by then he starts to get confused and nothing matters except him going to bed. At bedtime he is also confused, possibly half the time and doesn’t know or is not sure of what he is doing sometimes.
Such is the life of Mr. Q. In several respects he is like the other clients we have had/have that have dementia or Alzheimer’s. Mr. Q, however, seems to have better memory, even excellent memory for anyone 81. I am starting to notice he really does not seem to remember some things that happened a few minutes before. It’s hard to tell if it is his memory or just that he is confused since that is only the time his memory seems to not work right.
This was two days in a row that there were no problems with Mr. Q.
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